Dr. Jennifer Walden Is Standing Out In a Male Dominated Industry

For the last eight years Dr. Jennifer Walden has been a practicing plastic surgeon. Her specialty is cosmetic surgery and she focuses exclusively on procedures such as rhinoplasties, breast augmentations, eyelid lifts and face-lifts. In an industry that is dominated by men, Dr. Jennifer Walden fully understands that she is a rarity. In 2012 there were just over 8,000 board certified plastic surgeons in the United States. Of those only 851 were women.

Dr. Walden believes one of the biggest reasons more women aren’t in the field is due to the amount of schooling that is required. At minimum you are required to go through five years of post medical school training. If your ultimate goal is to become a medical surgeon, you can add on another two years to that. Having to spend so much time in school can be a negative for women. Especially if they want to have children.

The culture of being a surgeon is also very tough on women. It has only been in recent years that women have started to feel welcome in the industry. Dr. Walden has said that as a female surgeon she has to prove herself every year. But for Walden, its a challenge she embraces. As a matter of fact, she sees the fact that shes a women as a huge advantage.

Being that 91 percent of all cosmetic surgeries are performed on women, Walden believes the fact that she is a women, who at some point has gone through some of the same experiences as some of her patients, gives her the ability to empathize and sympathize with what the women are going through. The great thing about Dr. Walden is that she believes in what she is doing. She didn’t become a surgeon for the money. She became a surgeon because she knew the positive impact it could have on women’s lives.